1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a connector with a double locking structure in which connection terminals installed in terminal accommodating chambers in a connector housing are securely locked by a terminal locking member that is fitted to the connector housing from the rear of the terminal accommodating chambers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of conventional connector with such a terminal locking member is shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 (Japanese Utility Preliminary Publication No. Showa 63-58470).
In these drawings, reference symbol a represents a connector housing having a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers a.sub.1 with a hood b attached over the circumference of the rear portion thereof. In the hood b a terminal locking member c is installed longitudinally movable.
The terminal locking member c has a plurality of resilient terminal locking pieces d, each of which is located inside the corresponding terminal accommodating chamber a.sub.1 (FIG. 8). The terminal locking member c has resilient engagement arms e on each side that project forwardly from a gap f and which are formed at the front end with engagement claws e.sub.1 that are to engage with end portions b.sub.1 of the hood b to prevent the terminal locking member c from slipping off backwardly. In this way, the terminal locking member is attached to the connector housing a in a preliminarily or loosely engaged condition (FIG. 6 and FIG. 7A).
In the preliminarily engaged state, a terminal lug g is inserted into each terminal accommodating chamber a.sub.1. At this time, an electrical contact portion g.sub.1 of the terminal lug g comes into contact with the underside d.sub.2 of an engagement bulged portion d.sub.1 formed at the free end of the terminal locking piece d, causing the engagement bulged portion d.sub.1 to escape upwardly into a groove a.sub.2 formed in the terminal accommodating chamber a.sub.1. Hence, the terminal lug g can be advanced forwardly (FIG. 8A) until it is locked by a resilient locking piece h provided in the terminal accommodating chamber a.
Next, in this condition as the terminal locking member c is pushed forwardly, the engagement bulged portion d.sub.1 is guided along a tapered surface a.sub.3 formed at the inner end of the groove a.sub.2 and deflected inwardly. The engagement bulged portion d.sub.1 then abuts against a stopper wall a.sub.4 and at the same time engages with the back of the electrical contact portion g.sub.1 of the terminal lug g. The terminal lug g is now doubly locked from coming off rearwardly. At this time, an engagement hole e.sub.2 of the resilient engagement arm e fits over an engagement projection i formed on the sides of the connector housing a. Now, the terminal locking member c is in a fully engaged state (FIG. 7B, FIG. 8B).
In the above construction, when it becomes necessary to replace the terminal lug g as when the terminal lug is broken, the terminal locking member c is first removed from the connector housing a and then the resilient engagement piece h is disengaged from the terminal lug g by using a jig before pulling the terminal lug g out of the connector housing a.
In other words, to replace the terminal lug requires the terminal locking member to be completely separated from the connector housing. This not only is troublesome requiring a sequence of steps but also gives rise to a possibility of the disconnected terminal locking member being lost.